The Museum of Modern Art acquired The Starry Night in 1941.
The New York museum obtained the painting through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest, by exchanging works with the Paul Rosenberg Gallery. Rosenberg, a major Parisian art dealer, had owned the canvas since 1938, when he bought it from Georgette P. van Stolk of Rotterdam.
The acquisition capped a complicated journey. After Vincent van Gogh sent the painting to his brother Theo in 1889, it passed to Theo’s widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. It was later owned by Julien Leclercq, Émile Schuffenecker, and the Oldenzeel Gallery before reaching van Stolk and Rosenberg.
The year is often mixed up with 1935, when the painting first appeared in a MoMA Van Gogh retrospective, or with 1945, when it was already part of the museum’s collection. Its 1941 arrival helped establish The Starry Night as one of the defining paintings of modern art.